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Israel halts fire for 7 hours after strike on school

U.N. condemns attack on its school in Gaza, where 10 civilians died and 30 were wounded, while the Israeli army says it was not deliberately targeting U.N. schools. Gavino Garay reports.
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GAZA CITY — Israel's military said it was suspending most fire for seven hours after a Gaza health official said a strike near a United Nations school on Sunday killed 10 people.

Israel said a "humanitarian window" beginning at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) Monday does not apply to areas where troops are still operating.

Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip on Sunday in an apparent winding down of the operation against Hamas, though fighting continued in parts of Gaza.

Israel said it would respond to any attacks during the suspension of fighting.

Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said an additional 35 people were wounded after the hit near a boys' school sheltering Gazans displaced by the 27-day conflict in the southern town of Rafah.

The Israeli military said that it had targeted three wanted militants on a motorcycle in the vicinity and was "reviewing the consequences of this strike."

The United States said that it is "appalled" by the "disgraceful" shelling of the U.N. school sheltering about 3,000 people.

In language that was rare in its directness and severity, the U.S. noted that the school had been designated a protected location, and the Israel Defense Forces had been informed numerous times of the school's coordinates.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called on Israel to do "more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties."

The comments came after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attack "a moral outrage and a criminal act."

"(The attack) is yet another gross violation of international humanitarian law, which clearly requires protection by both parties of Palestinian civilians, U.N. staff and U.N. premises, among other civilian facilities," he said.

Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian areas for cover and says the militant group is responsible for the heavy death toll because it has been using civilians as "human shields."

Israel said that it attacked 63 sites Sunday and that nearly 100 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said, "We have indeed scaled down some of the presence and indeed urged Palestinians in certain neighborhoods to come back to their homes."

Several Israeli tanks and other vehicles were seen leaving Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested in a televised address late Saturday that Israel would reassess operations after demolishing the tunnel system it says Hamas uses to carry out attacks in Israel.

Netanyahu also warned in the address that Hamas would pay an "intolerable price" if rocket fire continued and that all options were still open.

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a cease-fire on Aug. 26 in Gaza City. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire proposal to end seven weeks of fighting between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

A worker removes debris from the Cohen family bedroom after a missile fired by militants in the Gaza Strip made a direct hit in their home in Ashkelon, Israel. (Photo: Abir Sultan, European Pressphoto Agency)

A Palestinian boy walks across the rubble of a house belonging to the al-Dakhani family after an Israeli airstrike on the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. Two people were wounded in the attack. (Photo: Eyad Baba, AP)

A man looks out the window of a damaged classroom after a rocket, fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, landed in the courtyard of a kindergarten in Ashdod, Israel. (Photo: Jack Guez, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian man sweeps the floor of his home that was damaged after a mosque across the street was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian woman watches from a hole in a home belonging to Hamas financial official Mohammed al-Ghul after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. One of several targeted airstrikes by Israeli forces killed Al-Ghul in his vehicle. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

Relatives and close family friends of Daniel Turgeman touch his coffin during the boy's funeral on Aug. 24 in Yevul, Israel. Turgeman, 4, was killed in a mortar attack fired by Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip on Aug. 22. (Photo: Jim Hollander, European Pressphoto Agency)

An Israeli firefighter extinguishes a fire after rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip hit a field near the southern Israeli city of Sderot. (Photo: Menahem Kahana, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinians carry the body of the wife of Mohammed Deif, Israel's most-wanted man, at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. According to media reports, Deif's wife and son were killed Aug. 20 in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Israel holds Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, accountable for directing the Gaza conflict from underground. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

Israeli soldiers in an undisclosed southern Israeli location take cover inside a cement pipe near the border with the Gaza Strip as a 'red alert' sounds, signaling that Palestinian militants have fired a rocket toward the area. The Israeli army reported that Palestinians shot about 180 rockets and mortars since the collapse of the cease-fire, with scores of Israeli strikes inside the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinians grieve over the death of Widad Mustafa Deif, 27, and her 8-month-old son, Ali Mohammed Deif, during their funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp. They were killed by an Israeli strike Aug. 20. (Photo: Khalil Hamra, AP)

A Palestinian boy spots two Israeli drones in the late afternoon Aug. 19. Palestinians fled their homes in neighborhoods of eastern Gaza City carrying bags of clothes, pillows and mattresses after renewed Israeli airstrikes, witnesses said. Nine days of relative quiet in the skies over Gaza came to an abrupt halt when rockets struck Israel just hours before the truce was to expire at midnight local time. Israel immediately ordered a military response, with warplanes striking targets across the coastal strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip rises into the night sky. More than 50 rockets were fired toward Israeli civilian centers from Gaza on Aug. 19, shattering the 24-hour cease-fire, and Israel responded with multiple air force attacks on Gaza, with deaths and many casualties reported. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinian rescuers clear the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. The Israeli airstrike killed a young girl and a woman, wounding 16 other people. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

An Egyptian soldier stands guard on the Egyptian side of the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Aug. 13, overlooking the damage in Rafah caused by a month of fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas militants. (Photo: Said Khatib, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Zakariah al-Aqrah, 21, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Qabalan. The Israeli military said it killed al-Aqrah early Monday morning after he opened fire on an Israeli force that had come to arrest him in connection with shootings targeting Israeli soldiers two weeks ago. (Photo: Majdi Mohammed, AP)

A Palestinian man standing in a crowd of onlookers reacts to watching a soap factory go up in flames moments after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Aug, 10. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

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More than 1,800 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed in nearly four weeks of fighting, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. At the same time, nearly 70 Israelis — almost all soldiers — have also died, according to the Israeli military. Some 250,000 people in Gaza have been forced to flee their homes, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The Israeli military death toll rose to 64 after it announced Saturday that Hadar Goldin, 23, an infantry lieutenant feared captured in battle, was actually killed Friday in an ambush along with two other soldiers. The ambush shattered an hours-old, hard-won cease-fire and sparked heavy shelling that left dozens of Palestinians dead.

Israeli Army 2nd. Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23.(Photo: AP)

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon revealed on his Facebook page Sunday that he is a distant relative of Goldin. About 15,000 people attended Goldin's funeral Sunday.

Some Israelis said they did not think Hamas will lay down its arms and that the government should continue its mission in Gaza to take out Hamas infrastructure.

Others said they simply want the fighting to end.

"It's a terrible situation for both Israelis and Palestinians, but we have more options, we have places where we can hide – in Gaza, people don't even have that," said Shira Bar, 19, of Jerusalem. "Hamas is doing terrible things to them, and it's doing terrible things to us, and our army is also doing terrible things – it's so complicated."

Israeli Armored Personnel Carriers are parked at a staging area in southern Israel overlooking the Gaza Strip on August 3, 2014.(Photo: Jim Hollander, EPA)

Hamas has said it will not stop fighting until Israel and Egypt lift a blockade on Gaza imposed after the group took power in 2007.

"I wish the war would end but there is so much violence, and people don't want to talk to each other," Bar added. "I don't want to be naive that it will end soon. I think both the Israeli government and Hamas are guilty, (responsible) for this war."

Abu Huzaifa, 40, a Hamas supporter, said if Israel wants the group to lay down its weapons it should "end its military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, releases all political prisoners from Israeli jails and allow the return of Palestinian refugees."

"Palestinian resistance was founded to resist the Israeli occupation of our land," Huzaifa said.